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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

ROCK HILL, S.C. (AP) — An electronics plant in Rock Hill is releasing about 15 percent of its staff.
The Herald of Rock Hill reported Friday that TE Connectivity has eliminated 57 jobs at the plant that makes electronic connectors.
Company spokesman Mike Ratcliff says the reductions come because of a restructuring and a slowdown in business.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's office confirmed Thursday that the state is in talks with General Motors to expand production at the automaker's Tennessee plant.
The state's economic development chief, Bill Hagerty, was in Detroit to meet with GM officials, as were mayors representing communities surrounding the Spring Hill plant that stopped assembling the Chevrolet Traverse in 2009.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Alcoa Inc. will invest $300 million to expand and add 150 jobs to its Davenport plant to meet the growing demand for demand from the automotive industry as automakers work to meet federal guidelines for increasing gas mileage and lowering emissions, company officials announced Thursday.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's unemployment rate increased substantially in August as the national economy slowed, jumping by the largest amount in more than two years, the state Department of Labor and Industry said Thursday.
The jobless rate increased from 7.8 percent in July to 8.

DETROIT (AP) — It looks like the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. are nearing an agreement on a new contract.
UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, the union's chief negotiator, told workers in an email update Friday that bargainers are getting "very close" to the framework of a deal.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. announced on Thursday that it is trimming its worldwide workforce of 18,000 by about 540 jobs to remain competitive in the helicopter design, manufacturing and service industry.
Paul Jackson, the company's director of communications, called the move to cut about 3 percent of the workforce "a difficult decision.

MARIETTA, Pa. (AP) — Workers at a central Pennsylvania ceiling tile plant have overwhelmingly rejected the company's contract offer.
Union workers have been locked out of the Armstrong World Industries plant in Marietta, Lancaster County since July 17.
About 85 percent of the plant's 260 workers on Thursday voted 'no' to the contract offer on Thursday.

BATH, Maine (AP) — General Dynamics Corp. said Thursday that the U.S. Navy awarded its shipbuilding subsidiary a $1.8 billion contract to build the next two in a series of new destroyers.
The so-called Zumwalt-class warships are scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2015 and 2018.

PARIS (AP) — Air France-KLM says it has ordered 50 long-haul planes from Airbus and Boeing and has the option to buy another 60.
Europe's largest airline by passengers said Friday that the order was for Airbus' A350-900 and Boeing's 787-9 planes.
The order is for 25 planes from each of the rival manufacturers and will be finalized by the end of the year.

SHANGHAI (AP) — Shanghai's environmental watchdog ordered two factories in its suburbs to halt production pending an investigation into the source of lead poisoning among children in a nearby village.
The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said in a notice on its website Friday that it was studying lead emissions from the two factories, one of which is a large lead-acid battery plant run by U.

BERLIN (AP) — Volkswagen AG says it plans to invest €62 billion ($85.5 billion) in innovation and technology projects, primarily in Germany.
Europe's largest automaker said Friday the investment between 2012 and 2016 will focus on the development of more environmentally friendly cars like hybrids and electric vehicles, new drive systems and the modularization of production.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Honeywell International Inc. said Thursday that its electronic materials division will more than double its refining and casting capacity for high-purity copper and tin at one of its plants to meet rising demand from the semiconductor industry.
Demand for high-purity copper for advanced chip designs continues to increase, the Morristown, N.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-dominated House approved a bill Thursday that would undercut the government's labor dispute with Boeing Co., wading into a case that has angered business groups and become a major political issue in the GOP presidential primary.
The measure, approved on a 238 to 186 vote, would ban the National Labor Relations Board from ordering any employer to shut down plants or relocate work, even if a company violates labor laws.

Consumer Prices Rose 0.4 Percent in August on Higher Food and Energy Costs
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4 percent in August, building on last month’s 0.5 percent increase . Once again, higher energy costs led the way, up 1.2 percent for the month.

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 11.2 percent in the latest monthly figures, the state announced Wednesday.
The state's unemployment rate in August continued to exceed the nationwide rate, which was 9.1 percent in August, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

DETROIT (AP) — Negotiations between General Motors, Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union continued Thursday even though bargainers missed a key deadline to agree on a new contract.
The union, which represents 111,000 workers at Detroit's carmakers, agreed to keep working under the old GM and Chrysler contracts, which expired Wednesday at 11:59 p.

General Electric Co. says it is offering to pay $3.3 billion to buy back preferred shares bought by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. during the depths of the financial crisis.
GE said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it has mailed its offer to Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Johnson Controls Inc. said Wednesday that it will invest $100 million to build a plant in China that will produce vehicle batteries with start-stop technology.
The plant will supply global and local automakers in Asia and is expected to begin production in early 2013.

NEW YORK (AP) — General Electric Co. has received $1 billion in orders this year for turbines that burn natural gas to make electricity from customers in North America eager to take advantage of low natural gas prices.
Natural gas prices in North America have been low and steady in recent years as drillers have learned to unlock vast amounts of natural gas once thought inaccessible in shale formations throughout the U.